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Narrating Desire: Sexuality and Belonging in Hoda Barakat’s War Literature
Abstract
This paper presents close analysis of Huda Barakat’s narrative on the Lebanese civil war. It aims to explore her literary expression of desire and belonging through a feminist lens. It investigates the depiction of sexual performance, desire, and libido against the backdrop of the construction of different forms of masculinities and the fictionalization of belonging during national crises. In “The Stone of Laughter” (1994) and “Disciples of Passion” (1993), Barakat deploys hetero- and homosexual masculine characters in order to explore different forms of sexualities in war-torn Lebanon while simultaneously raising the question of belonging. I argue that in their quest for belonging, both dominant and subordinate masculinities can be challenged, deconstructed, and reconstructed during national crises. Accordingly, this paper suggests that, in Barakat’s war narrative, the dynamics of belonging governs the emerging sexual consciousness.
Discipline
Literature
Geographic Area
Lebanon
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries